Rhaphiolepis bibas
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
loquat
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
White
Detailed description
Tree up to 8m high when mature; trunk well developed; primary stems erect; secondary stems spreading; young stems stout, white-tomentose; older stems with prominent leaf scars, becoming greyish-brown and transversely calloused. Leaves near branch tips; petiole about 15mm long, stout; blade oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 150~350 x 75~100mm, acute, tapering to cuneate or slightly auriculate base, very coriaceous, generally rugose, dark green and glossy above, thinly grey- or brown- tomentose below (very young leaves completely brown-tomentose), serrate at least in upper half; stipules long-triangular, generally attenuate, pilose. Infl. of many flowers; pedicels 5~8mm long, brownish tomentose. Sepals fused for most of length; lobes 2~4mm long, brown-tomentose. Petals white or ivory, oblong, around 7~8 x 3~4mm, shallowly emarginate. Fruit pyriform to broadly ellipsoid-oblong or subglobose, up to 50 x 35mm; skin yellow, around tomentose; flesh sweet. (- Webb et.al., 1988)
Similar taxa
Tree up to 8m high, leaves near branch tips. stout leaes, oval and up to 400 mm long, crinkled and dark, glossy green above with a thin grey to brown mat of soft hairs below. Flowers April-August-November. Edible fruits 50x 35 mm, hairy, yellow, drop-oval shaped, October-December.
Habitat
Terrestrial.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Synonyms
Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl.
Ecology
Flowering
April, May June, July, August, September, October, November.
Fruiting
October-December.
Year naturalised
1982
Origin
China, Japan
Reason for introduction
Agricultural
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial. Loquat is known to be eaten by pigeons and may be spread into light forest by this vector.
Other information
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
RHABIB